Can police request you remove your key?

[jcblitz]

I was talking to a buddy of mine last night and he was telling me a story about a week or so back he got pulled over for no apparent reason. The cop told him to remove his key and place it on the ground. Long story short (and I'm sure we've all heard it a 1000 times) the cop said he's had to many people run that he's not taking any chances. The cop didn't have anything on him but tried to issue him a visor up ticket but he argueed his way out of it. My question is, can cops legally tell you to put your key on the ground? Is that a lawful order? They do not make cars do this, can they do this to bikes? Plus, how often to bikes run when they're at a dead stop and cops are 10 feet behind them...which means the cop has a full view of their plate (assuming they're a legal bike). And I don't want to hear this "The cop is making sure the bike isn't stolen, wouldn't you want your bike recovered?" That's a weak argument and I don't want to hear it. We can't start treating everyone like criminals because then, the terrorist win!!!